Storytime Tricks: Using the Flannel Board

Flannels! I use these visual props to enhance songs and rhymes during storytime. As I have no budget for purchasing readymade flannels, I make my own as a way to update my storytime repertoire. My method of creating flannels -- a bit of a misnomer as I don't use this fabric -- requires only paper, plastic and sandpaper.

Note: for those who may be confused as to what is a flannel board, it's literally a board covered in flannel. There are many versions available, and below is the one that I use complete with pockets.



My flannel making technique in four easy steps:

1) Find a coloring page online or draw an image yourself
2) Color image (or outsource to your library volunteers)
3) Cut out and laminate pictures. You might be fancy enough to have access to a laminating machine. As I don't, I use KAPCO, a hard plastic designed to cover books, which also works wonderfully for this purpose.
4) Stick a small square of sandpaper to the back using double stick tape.

Voila! The pictures will stick to the flannel board, and I find them much more aesthetically pleasing than using flannel fabric with sharpie markings.

The flannels I use most often are "Little Red Wagon" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep". Both have the same concept -- a color themed nursery rhyme/song with an interactive element of guessing which color we'll sing about next. After first singing about the title color, I keep the rest of the options in the pocket of the flannel board and have children predict which color will be chosen at random. Once we've sang with three or four different colors, we'll wave goodbye to each color as a further way to practice color names. As in, "bye bye, blue wagon" or "bye bye, yellow sheep" and so on.

This is the "Little Red Wagon" flannel:



And the "Baa Baa Black Sheep" flannel:



A seasonal flannel I adore is "Five Little Snowmen", just because it's rather fun to act out the melting of each snowman. You can even display the lyrics for parents. Last time I sang this song one observant child asked me why there was one snowman whose nose wasn't colored black. Good question!



Some further resources you can use for flannel ideas are The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra (H.W. Wilson, 1997), Storytime Magic: 400 Fingerplays, Flannel Boards and Other Activities by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker (ALA, 2009) and Flannelboard Stories for Infants & Toddlers by Ann Carlson (ALA, 2005).

Best of Storytime: Books

To some extent one can predict which picture books children will find entertaining. Stories that mention underwear? Hilarious. Animals making the wrong noises? Unbelievable. Virtually every pop up book? Amazing. And a pigeon insisting on driving a bus? Well okay, I agree that is rather brilliant myself.

When planning my storytimes I include at least one book that I've used before with great success, along with new titles. Since many of the children that attend my storytime speak a language other than English as their first language, I tend to select books that very repetitive to encourage participation along with physical components that can be acted out. The age ranges are approximate and will depend upon your community. These are my highly tested and approved storytime classics.

Books for Toddlers
Across the Stream by Mirra Ginsburg
The Baby Goes Beep! by Rebecca O'Connell
Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr (Note: Somehow I only learned within the past year that you can sing this to the tune of the ABC song. It's highly catchy and addictive!)
Freight Train by Donald Crews
From Head to Toe by Eric Carlie
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw
Meeow and the Box by Sebastien Braun
Piggies by Audrey Wood
Spots, Feathers & Curly Tails by Nancy Tafuri
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
This Little Chick by John Lawrence
Tip Tip, Dig Dig by Emma Garcia
What Shall We Do with the Boo Hoo Baby? by Cressida Cowell
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood

Books for Preschoolers
Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
The Enormous Potato retold by Audrey Davis
Go Away Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley
Hi Pizza Man! by Virginia Walters
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont
Let's Play in the Forest by Claudia Rueda
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big, Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood
Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont
Who Is Driving? by Leo Timmers
Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen

Pop Up/Lift the Flap/Novelty Books for Most Ages:
Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Opposites by Robert Crowther
One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Peekaboo Blueberry by Barney Saltzburg
Trucks Go Pop! by Bob Staake

My personal style of sharing stories is highly interactive: discussing illustrations, making predictions as to what will happen next, and inviting the audience to join in repeated phrases or sounds. My interest is in young children practicing and enhancing their early literacy skills (particularly vocabulary, print motivation and narrative skills), rather than sitting quietly and listening as research shows children learn most from books when actively involved.

There is no one best way method for storytime; rather, I recommend choosing titles you enjoy and that compliment the way you feel most comfortable sharing books.